Ghana’s road sector has fallen from a D3 to an E1 grade over the past decade, with contractor arrears and axle overloading named as key drivers of the decline.
Dr Patrick Amoah Bekoe, Vice President of the Ghana Institution of Engineering, said the drop, revealed in the 2026 Ghana Infrastructure Report Card, put roads alongside health and rail as the sectors scoring E1, at 49 and 48 percent respectively, the weakest tier in the assessment. The report drew on data from ministries and state agencies alongside survey responses from more than 900 engineering professionals and members of the public. “The road sector is facing a mix of challenges,” Bekoe said on the Asaase Breakfast Show.
Unpaid contractor certificates sit at the centre of those challenges. By the end of 2024, unpaid road contractor certificates reportedly exceeded GH¢20 billion against total government commitments across the sector of about GH¢105 billion. “When you have high contractor arrears, naturally contractors are not working,” Bekoe said. Roads Minister Kwame Agbodza has said government inherited close to GH¢40 billion in road sector debt and has paid contractors roughly GH¢12 billion since taking office, clearing GH¢10 billion in arrears by the end of 2025. The strain extends beyond major contractors: members of the Single Man Contractors Association, responsible for clearing gutters and maintaining road shoulders for the Ghana Highway Authority, say they have gone unpaid for work dating back to 2020 and petitioned President Mahama in May seeking urgent settlement.
Axle overloading compounds the damage, with the report recording about a 5.7 percent rise in violations. “We need axle load enforcement. It is something we need to work on as a nation,” Bekoe said. The Roads Ministry has itself acknowledged that some weigh stations have been compromised by politically connected individuals and corrupt operators allowing overloaded trucks through in exchange for bribes, and is now planning automated technology, including a system nicknamed the Dead Man Switch, to remove human interference from the weighing process following a review by the National Security Secretariat, the Ghana Highway Authority and the Ghana Standards Authority.
Only about 27 percent of Ghana’s road network is paved, and Bekoe warned that delaying maintenance carries a steep cost. “For every deferred maintenance, the rate of deterioration is about seven to eight times,” he said. Ghana has pursued a target of keeping 70 percent of its roads in good condition since a rolling road sector strategic plan adopted in 1996, a benchmark the country has still not met three decades later. Bekoe called for innovative financing, stronger asset management and sustained maintenance rather than a continued focus on building new roads alone.
